Photosynth to Virtual Earth? Yesterday, we all read the post by Microsoft’s Chris Pendleton that Microsoft’s Photosynth photo geopositioning Live Labs research project had graduated to the Virtual Earth team, the implication being that we would soon see this “productized” inside Virtual Earth.

But by this morning, the link to the post went dead, and there is no more trace of the news in Chris’s archives. False alarm? Premature anouncement? Was it meant to be a secret?

Pity, as I was going to build a post around it about how it really is high time that Microsoft expends more resources on making its web services truly standards-based, i.e. platform neutral. Google Earth’s 3D web plugin is just a few months old and is only a month away from getting a Mac version. Virtual Earth 3D has been out for over a year and a half and still has no cross-platform support. Photosynth, should it be heading for mainstream browser support, really also needs to work on the Mac.

The reason is simple: Developers don’t want to use APIs to build consumer-oriented web services until the results work in a browser irrespective of operating system. Once Mac support arrives for the Google Earth plugin, that’s when its API will enter mainstream use by developers. Microsoft’s geoweb apps are ignoring the Mac minority, which is why they get comparatively less traction.

I agree with you about Microsoft’s lack of effort in getting their geospatial products cross platform. Its old thinking to keep things proprietary. I would imagine they would see the value in making Virtual Earth and PhotoSynth cross-platform for exactly the reasons you mentioned. And while the Mac OS may still be the majority OS, it has certainly gained some considerable ground in the past couple of years. As Windows reaches its glass ceiling in development looking ahead to support the Mac OS would be wise, especially considering the Mac OS runs perfectly fine on Intel architecture. This all just amounts to my personal desire to see these cool tools on my computing platform of choice. I am sure there are many who say the same thing about Apple software such as Final Cut Pro.